The FBI is calling it a “miracle” and the airline says a teen who hopped the fence at a San Jose airport is “lucky to have survived” a five and half hour flight to Maui — in the wheel well of a Boeing 767.
The 16-year-old stowaway survived temperatures as low as 80 degrees below zero and the thin air available at 38,000 feet, FBI spokesman Tom Simon told the Los Angeles Times, reports USA Today.
“He was unconscious for pretty much the entire flight,” said Simon. “I imagine he must have blacked out at about 10,000 feet.”
Security video indicated the teen was able to breach San Jose’s Mineta International Airport security and climb undetected into the wheel well of Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45.
The tale has its detractors, including John Nance, an aviation expert for ABC-TV.
“I don’t believe the kid was in the wheel well,” Nance said.
The FAA, however, says it is possible. Its data cites two cases of high altitude flight by stowaways, one from Havana, Cuba to Madrid and from Bogota, Colombia, to Miami. The flights reached at about 35,000 feet with outdoor temps as low as -65 degrees.
“The presence of warm hydraulic lines in the wheel-well and the initially warm tires provided significant heat,” the FAA report says.
“The stable climb of the aircraft enabled hypoxia to lead to gradual unconsciousness. As the wheel-well environment slowly cooled, hypothermia accompanies the deep hypoxia, preserving nervous system viability.”
As the plane slowly descends, the air warms and oxygen pressure increases. Upon landing, “individuals were found in a semi-conscious state, and, upon treatment, recovered.”
But the FAA report notes that numerous “copycat” attempts have ended in death.
Simon said the teen ran away from his family and to the airport after an argument. The teen apparently slept through the flight, awaking about an hour after it landed and then hopping onto the tarmac in Maui.
“Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,” Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Alison Croyle told the Associated Press.
Simon said the boy, who is not being identified, appeared to be unharmed. He was released to child protective services and not charged with a crime, Simon said.
In August, a 13- or 14-year-old boy in Nigeria survived a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a domestic flight after stowing away.
Authorities credited the flight’s short duration and altitude of about 25,000 feet. Others stowing away in wheel wells have died, including a 16-year-old who stowed away aboard a flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Boston in 2010 and a man who fell onto a suburban London street as a flight from Angola began its descent in 2012.
Source: Dhaka Tribune